FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT LOS ANGELES COUNTY

DOWNTOWN — Police Chief Scott LaChasse this week announced that he has brought on a veteran Los Angeles County sheriff’s chief to serve as his deputy should the City Council approve a policy allowing outside recruits. Thomas P. Angel, a 34-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, served as a chief under Sheriff Lee Baca before his retirement in January. Angel started reporting to LaChasse on Monday under a consulting contract that expires April 3. He was to perform the duties of captain, and may be given the assignment of deputy chief, according to the contract.

The former Jordan Middle School teacher who turned herself in for having sex with a 14-year-old student was transferred Thursday to a Los Angeles County jail in Lynwood, authorities said. Amy Beck, the 33-year-old Burbank Unified English and social science teacher, does not intend to post $175,000 bail as she continues to work with investigators, said her attorney, Michael Williamson. “My client is not making any admissions,” he said. “She’s voluntarily assisting and cooperating with the Burbank Police Department.

On-location film productions in Los Angeles County plummeted 19% in 2009 — the largest drop since the figure was first recorded in 1993 — contributing to the decline in working opportunities for the regional entertainment workforce, experts and observers said. Entertainment industry spending generates the majority of economic activity in Glendale and Burbank, where major motion picture and television studios — as well as related businesses ranging from prop shops to rental houses — are, experts said.

DOWNTOWN — A former Burbank police detective has been ordered to pay the city $22,500 to cover a portion of the legal fees it incurred in defending itself against his privacy and defamation lawsuit. Attorneys for Christopher Lee Dunn filed the lawsuit in July, claiming City Atty. Dennis Barlow illegally released his personnel records to the media the same day the former detective filed a wrongful termination and racial discrimination lawsuit. But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer struck down the complaint on the grounds that it constituted a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP.

On-location film productions in Los Angeles County plummeted 19% in 2009 — the largest drop in the figure since it was first recorded in 1993 — contributing to the decline in working opportunities for the regional entertainment workforce, experts and observers said. Entertainment industry spending generates the majority of economic activity in Glendale and Burbank, where major motion picture and television studios — as well as related businesses ranging from prop shops to rental houses — are located, experts said.

DOWNTOWN — Crime in Burbank dropped 8% in 2009, mirroring a slide across Los Angeles County despite escalating unemployment and a sluggish economy, according to year-end figures released Monday by the Burbank Police Department. The number of murders dropped 50%, from two in 2008 to one last year, according to the department’s FBI uniform crime report. Burbank Police Chief Scott LaChasse, a 32-year veteran of the LAPD, attributed declines across the region in part to “hardening the target,” the law enforcement tactic of beefing up of security to minimize the risk of an attack or theft.

The San Fernando Valley — the nation’s largest geographic nonmunicipal entity — has grown more educated and diverse in recent years as it expanded to include 1.74 million people, according to a report released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. The report was based on the American Community Survey of 2008 and shows that the region, made up of Burbank, San Fernando, Calabasas and Los Angeles, as well as some unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and portions of Glendale, has developed into a multicultural region, a trend that could be further amplified in the 2010 Census, experts said.